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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://doi.org/10.24318/AoZQIusn">https://doi.org/10.24318/AoZQIusn</a> </span> </div> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The COPE guidelines Editing peer reviews, are intended to advise editors, publishers, and researchers on expected practices and appropriate circumstances regarding the editing of peer reviews. </p> <p>The guidelines look at the need for journals to amend peer reviews, and provide insight into situations where this might be an appropriate course of action. Journals should have clear policies on what is acceptable and unacceptable in a reviewer report regarding tone, language, and content, and advice on the extent to which a review can be edited to adhere to these policies. There are alternative methods for editors to deal with controversial content, and advice is given on how to respond to hostile or unprofessional reviews.</p> <p>COPE Guidelines are formal COPE policy and are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected publication ethics practice.</p> <div id="file-993901" class="file file-document file-application-pdf"> <h2 class="element-invisible"><a href="/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/file/993901">Editing peer reviews - COPE guidelines</a></h2> <div class="content"> <div class="resource-download-inline"> <div class="resource-download-inline__container"> <div class="resource-download-inline__type"> Document </div> <div class="resource-download-inline__description"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/files/editing-peer-reviews-cope-guideline.pdf" target="_blank">Editing peer reviews - COPE guidelines</a> <span class="resource-download-inline__meta">PDF 771 KB</span> </div> </div> <div class="resource-download-inline__shadow"> <div class="resource-download-inline__shadow__inner"></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <h2>Key points</h2> <ul><li>Journals should have clear guidelines for reviewers on what is acceptable and unacceptable in a reviewer report regarding tone, language, and content.</li> <li>Journal policy should clearly state whether the journal edits reviews, and under what circumstances a review might be edited. </li> <li>Reviewers should be invited to edit their review report themselves to comply with the journal’s guidelines.</li> <li>Editors should inform reviewers of any significant edits made to their review.</li> <li>Edits to reviews should address only issues of tone, language, and deviations from journal policy and reviewer guidelines, and should not change the meaning or intention of the review, nor alter the reviewer’s professional opinion about the quality, content, or intellectual validity of the manuscript under review.</li> <li>Alternatives to editing reviews include editors providing a cautionary note in their decision letter.</li> <li>Journals should have a policy on how to respond to hostile or unprofessional reviews.</li> </ul><h3>Related resources</h3> <ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/editing-reviewer-comments-forum-discussion-topic-march-2020%20">Editing of reviewer comments</a> Forum discussion, March 2020</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/node/47096">Editing of reviewer comments</a> survey, June 2020</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/node/34926">Who owns peer reviews?</a> discussion document and podcast, September 2017</li> </ul></div></div></div><ul class="links inline"><li class="comment_forbidden first last"><span><a href="/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/user/login?destination=node/50071%23comment-form">Login to your account</a> or <a href="/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/user/register?destination=node/50071%23comment-form">register</a><br>to post comments</span></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <details class="revision-log"> <summary class="revision-log__summary"> <h2>About this resource</h2> </summary> <div class="revision-log__col"> <div class="revision-log__doi-meta"> <p><strong>Cite this as</strong></p> <p>COPE Council. COPE Guidelines: Editing peer reviews — English.<br/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://doi.org/10.24318/AoZQIusn" rel="nofollow">https://doi.org/10.24318/AoZQIusn</a><br/> ©2021 Committee on Publication ethics (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="nofollow">CC BY-NC-ND 4.0</a>)<br/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122344/https://publicationethics.org/" rel="nofollow">https://publicationethics.org</a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Version history</strong></p> <p>Version 1: September 2021</p> </div> <h3 class="revision-log__subhead">Full page history</h3> <ul class="revision-log__entries"> <li class="revision-log__entry"> <div class="revision-log__date">1 December 2021</div> <p class="revision-log__message"> First publication </p> <div class="revision-log__link"> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section> </main> </div> </div> </div> <footer 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